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 "Tidings Online News"> |
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"publishdate">Friday, June 14, 2002 |
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| L.A. Catholics march to show support for church
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| By Jennifer C. Vergara |
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Yolanda Valadez, a parishioner at the San Gabriel Mission, proudly said she was "born a Catholic" and she will "die a Catholic." But, she said, she is also a very angry Catholic. "It angers me that people assume all priests are guilty" of sexual abuse, Valadez told The Tidings. "That's why we're here today - to support our priests, to show solidarity" with them and the victims. Valadez had joined more than 4,000 Catholics, mostly Latino, who marched from St. Joseph Church along Los Angeles Street to Our Lady Queen of Angels Church (La Placita) on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles during the early evening of June 8. This is the second such massive public show of support organized by El Sembrador, a non-profit Catholic ministry. The first was held April 13. Supporting, however, is different from condoning. Valadez clarified that she is also angry at priests who are indeed guilty and at policies that allow them to remain unaccountable. "If somebody breaks the law, they should go through the justice system - just like everybody else. No one is above the law," she stated, not even priests.
Eleven-year-old Sarai Vasquez, who attends St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Los Angeles, said she isn't afraid of priests at all. "I know a couple of priests who have led our church, who are really nice and have helped my family find jobs," she reasoned. Another girl from the same church, 12-year-old Cindy Hernandez, walked the whole two miles holding up an American flag almost as big as she is because it "represents us being united to pray." It is for the sake of young Catholics like Hurst, Vasquez and Hernandez that adult Catholics, including Tom Nolan, are clamoring for a zero tolerance policy for church hierarchy. "We need to have a very hard line, a very strong form of action," said the parishioner from St. Bede the Venerable Church in La Cañada Flintridge. "I want to do it with tenderness and love, though. I don't want to do it punitively." Zero tolerance for offending priests, said Sharon Bell of Holy Angels Church in Arcadia, is paramount. "There is a need to purify any element within our church that is not of God," she told The Tidings.
Indeed, on the weekend before U.S. bishops were to meet in Dallas to discuss institutional policy on clerical sexual abuse, many lay Catholics like Reyna Montero from St. Agatha Church in Los Angeles said this enormous problem could be a good thing. "God is purifying his church and I'm very happy that he is," Montero said. "This is a very special moment for the church," agreed Noel Díaz. The founder of El Sembrador expressed optimism that "we're going to have a better church through the crisis we're going through. So I think the outcome is going to be very positive." |
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The clerical sex abuse scandals actually hit close enough to home, said Bell. "I know a few priests who have been involved," she shared, and finding out "was very painful. But there was no other response to make except to pray more for them, more for the victims, and more for us as a church."
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